Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) Movie Review

by Alexander Robinson

See, this is what happens when you play god with Godzilla.

This movie starts off with a montage of Godzilla’s rampage though Tokyo in The Return of Godzilla played to the iconic Godzilla theme. Then it cuts to a team of researchers trying to collect Godzilla skin fragments that are sent to a company called Bio-major. A scientist who worked for this company got his hands on the cells and combined it with a rose during his research on the psychic energy of roses. He also combined the cells of his dead daughter, Erika. There is also another plot involving terrorists who demand for this Anti-Nuclear Bacteria or they will release Godzilla from his volcanic prison on Mt. Mihara. Well it wouldn’t be a very interesting movie if there was no Godzilla so he eventually is free from the volcano and is loose, once again. Eventually the scientists research with roses, Godzilla cells, and the sells of his dead daughter, morphs into the monster Biollante and the two monsters eventually fight

This is a very strange movie. The plot on the humans side is a little hard to follow and one can easily get lost. It also has a very strange score that with constantly switch between rock, rearranged queues from Akira Ifukube scores, and original music that sounds more appropriate for ballet then a Godzilla movie. Though the music isn’t bad (like the music for Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Godzilla vs. Megalon)it’s still very odd. I don’t quite understand why there is a middle eastern assassin through out the movie, either.

However, the movie has more good than bad. The fight scenes are really well done, even if Biollante is somewhat of a weak monster. The special effects are good, marking the debut of special effects director Koichi Kawakita. The new weapon, the Super XII, is also a cool idea. The fact that they decided to make the Super XII remote controlled as opposed to the Super X is smart, that way they don’t have any human casualties. This movie also brought in the Godzilla design that I grew up on, sometimes dubbed as Godzilla 90s, and is the first time since the first movie where Godzilla looks realistic. It also introduced the character that would be the glue that connects the rest of this particular series, Miki (Megumi Odaka) a young psychic who is somehow linked with Godzilla and can detect where he is. (pictured below in the far right)

I personally see this movie as somewhat underrated Godzilla movie, but it is one of the weakest, if not the weakest movie, of the second series. The movie wasn’t a financial success in Japan which lead the studio, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, and his producing parter/hand picked successor Shogo Tomiyama to revive one of their most well known monsters for the sequel. I would definitely tell you to give this movie a shot, but I don’t expect it to be one of your favorite Godzilla movies.

Check out my video review from last year and don’t forget to check out my current movie review channel

Hi there. I'm Alexander Robinson. I run a YouTube channel where I review movies under the show name "The Real Mr. Robinson". I was born in San Antonio, TX but I was raised in Los Angeles. I recently graduated from UC Santa Cruz. I would definitely consider myself a nerd, especially when it comes to Godzilla, Marvel, anything Joss Whedon, Harry Potter and simply movies in general.